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Waverley 8 October 2002
by John W Attwood
On a bright sunny morning
the small gathering on Tilbury landing stage were disappointed to
hear over Waverleys loudspeakers the announcement that the
advertised days cruise to Harwich was to be revised. The
weather forecast for the afternoon was for winds rising to force
5, which together with the exceptional high spring tide would
make landing at Clacton Pier impossible. We were therefore
offered the alternative cruise up the Medway returning at 4pm.
This had the minor effect of relieving the concern of a few who
had noted that a sign on the gates to ferry car park indicated
that they were to be locked at 7pm., well before our scheduled
coach return. A phone call to friends due to have joined us at
Clacton confirmed the fact that the weather was indeed much less
favourable on the coast to the north. Work was still underway on
the port paddle box, with timber hammer and crowbars in evidence,
as we waited wondering if the trip would take place at all.
Departure was delayed
about 10 minutes awaiting the late arrival of the replacement
Gravesend ferry Princess Pocahontas which would hopefully bring
supporters to boost our small passenger complement. Travelling
down the Thames it was pleasantly warm on the upper deck and we
had the unusual opportunity to take photographs of the twin wake
with no passengers on the stern deck. Passengers were picked up
at Southend but Waverley was still very under loaded and empty
seats greatly outnumbered the passengers in the dining saloon and
throughout the vessel. We were unprepared without any maps or
knowledge of the Medway, even the map displayed outside the
pursers office showed the Essex coast. It was interesting
to view the former naval stronghold of Chatham and dockyard now
with a modern marina. We were turned by tug in the Medway
opposite the moored Kingswear Castle for our return to Southend.
The wind was rising and there was slight rolling during the
Thames estuary crossing, enough to make some of the landlubbers
pleased not to be venturing on the North Sea to Harwich.
After dropping the
Southend passengers Waverley seemed very empty on the return to
Tilbury. We went passed the landing stage to a wide point on the
river to turn. There was a moderate wind blowing towards the
Gravesend bank as we turned and it needed a few astern manoeuvres
to just get the bow angled away from the lee shore within the
available river width, without much forward motion there being a
steady drift towards an unused dockside. We almost were almost
clear of the dock when the starboard paddle sponson struck a pile
projecting from the dock carrying a fender for the big shipping,
causing damage to Waverleys timber fendering. This brought
us to a stop and required a nifty step onto the dockside to
attach a stern rope and winch the bow to a sufficiently outward
angle for us to continue. Just as we were leaving a lone hard
hatted figure appeared from the distant warehouses, presumably to
investigate why a vintage steamer was mooring to their wharf.
Arriving at Tilbury a few minutes later than our revised time,
passengers were still disembarking when the engineers were again
at work inside the port paddle. Those of us returning to London
took advantage of the free Tilbury Ferry shuttle bus to the
station and had a very comfortable ride to Fenchurch Street on
the new C2C Electrostar train.